After GB Bank surpassed a £2bn balance sheet late last month, B&C sat down with its CEO, Mike Says, to discuss growth plans as well as the next milestone the company has in its sights.

“Hitting £3bn by the end of the year would be where I'd like to see us,” said Mike.

“Our profit is now sustainable. We've made a profit every month in the last six months, and our profit each month keeps growing.”

Since gaining its banking licence in August 2022, GB Bank has announced a raft of market advances, such as securing £85m in funding in May last year from Hera Holdings and existing shareholder The Teesside Pension Fund, as well as increasing its maximum loan size to £15m in January after its August 2024 rise to £10m.

According to Mike, who served as CFO before being appointed CEO at the bank in August last year, the business was moving slowly before gaining the funding from Hera Holdings.

•   The Finance Professional Show 2024: The Video
•   GB Bank achieves £2bn balance sheet milestone months after hitting profitability
•   GB Bank appoints Dean Taylor as relationship manager in the real estate finance team

“The business was almost in hibernation because we just didn't have the funding,” he divulged. “We were just trying to conserve capital and survive until we got investment.”

After gaining the funding, GB Bank provided forward-flow investments into two non-bank lenders in the BTL space in a move to put its capital to work, allowing it to grow its staff to around 80 people.

The firm now has plans to expand once again, with the addition of 30 to 35 staff over the next six to 12 months.

It also plans to grow its geographical reach.

“We're focusing on building out the revenue-generating teams now: the relationship managers, the business development managers,” said Mike.

“We are quite London-focused at the moment. I think we need to move more into the rest of the country, so we're going to be building out teams in the North of England and in the Midlands, as well as our London team, so I think that will definitely be where we put a lot of our growth in headcount.”

These appointments are set to take place alongside additions to teams such as risk, finance and treasury, and credit underwriting.

However, Mike doesn’t want the firm to get too attached to rigid lending targets and end up making the wrong decisions from a credit perspective.

“Although our relationship managers and our BDMs do have individual lending targets, I personally think that, if you stick to rigid lending targets, you can end up making some strange credit decisions,” he said.

He emphasised that if the lending climate proved unsuitable and lending objectives could only be achieved through criteria adjustments, he would rather give up the targets.

However, Mike seemed optimistic about GB Bank’s chances of reaching its goals, using the bank’s recent progress as an indicator of future growth while seemingly relishing his role of leading the firm into its future.

“I have probably one of the best jobs in banking,’’ he said, “I'm managing a new bank, it's exciting, we've got a strong backer and I think we're going to be making some waves in the marketplace.”